Glareolinae

(燕鸻亚科 Yàn-héng yà-kē ツバメチドリ亜科 Tsubame-chidori a-ka Phân họ Dô nách)

(Note: Some CJV Family and subfamily names under Monroe and Sibley are only tentative at this stage)

Along with the Dromadinae, the Glareolinae (pratincoles) belong to the Glareolidae. However, Howard and Moore (2003) exclude the Dromadinae from the Glareolidae.

1. General names

Chinese: The pratincoles are known as 燕鸻 yàn-héng ('swallow plovers') in Chinese, which appears to be a translation from the English 'swallow-plover'. The most common type, Glareola maldivarum, is popularly known as the 土燕 tǔ-yàn or 土燕子 tǔ-yànzi, both meaning 'earth swallow'.

Japanese: The Japanese name of the Glareola maldivarum is ツバメチドリ tsubame-chidori, normally written 燕千鳥 and also meaning 'swallow plover'.

Vietnamese: The Vietnamese name for the pratincoles is Dô nách. Glareola maldivarum is also known by the name Ó cau. (The latter is actually a Southern term.)

2. Species names

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SCIENTIFIC & ENGLISH
CHINESE
JAPANESE
VIETNAMESE
Latin English Chinese Chinese (Taiwan) Other Ch Japanese Other J Vietnamese Other V
Glareola pratincola
binocularsbinoculars		 Pratincole
Collared pratincole (Cheng) 		领燕鸻
lǐng yàn-héng
'collared swallow plover'
     ニシツバメチドリ
(西燕千鳥)
nishi tsubame-chidori
'western swallow plover' 		 

 
Glareola maldivarum
binocularsbinoculars		 Oriental pratincole (Cheng)
Eastern collared pratincole
Large Indian pratincole
Indian pratincole		 普通燕鸻
pǔtōng yàn-héng
'common swallow plover'		 燕鴴
yàn-héng
'swallow plover' 		土燕
tǔ-yàn
'earth swallow'
土燕子
tǔ-yànzi
'earth swallow'
燕千鸟
yàn-qiān niǎo
'swallow thousand-bird' (from Japanese?) 		ツバメチドリ
(燕千鳥)
tsubame-chidori
'swallow plover' 		  Dô nách nâu
'brown pratincole'
or
Ó cau
'oc cau'
(Southern dialects)		  
Glareola lactea
binoculars		 Little pratincole
Small pratincole (Cheng)
Small Indian pratincole		 灰燕鸻
huī yàn-héng
'grey swallow plover'
     ヒメツバメチドリ
(姫燕千鳥)
hime tsubame-chidori
'princess swallow plover' 		  Dô nách xám
'grey pratincole'
  

3. Notes

The distribution of the Glareolidae in East Asia can be seen at Tzung-Su Ding's Distribution of Charadriies in East Asia.

The Chinese and Japanese names for the pratincoles mean 'swallow plover'. Since 'swallow-plover' exists in English, this might be a 'loan translation' (calque) from English. (If it were a case of direct borrowing between the two languages, Japanese would normally borrow the Chinese characters directly, not simply the meaning).